Recently I asked my friend, Hillary-Marie Michael of the New Jersey Tap Ensemble, to share her experience of Robert Reed’s Winter Tap Residency from “Tradition in Tap.”
Hillary-Marie Michael has been dancing since the age of four. She has been mentored by Karen Callaway-Williams since 2004 and is greatly influenced by Harold Cromer.
Hillary has been a company member of The New Jersey Tap Ensemble since April 2006, where she continues to be trained by Deborah Mitchell and Maurice Chestnut. Outside of the ensemble, she has worked with The Russian Moscow Ballet, The American Tap Dance Foundation and members of the Tap City Youth Ensemble.
I am thankful that she took the time to share her experience at the workshop with the rest of us!
The “Winter Tap Residency 2008 with tap giant Prof. Robert L. Reed†was hosted by Avi Miller and Ofer Ben, Friday February 1st – Sunday February 3rd. Robert taught the complete original choreography of Black Orpheus, a routine that is part of The St. Louis Hoofers repertoire. The choreography was broken down into six parts over three days. Each day there was an opportunity to be taught two different segments.
I attended the Sunday session.
The Black Orpheus choreography is elegant and sophisticated. If there is one major lesson to be learned from this dance, it is phrasing. Every four bars, a new rhythmical pattern that feels natural is found.
Though residencies can get a bad title for being too large of classes, Robert made his way around and gave his attention to each tapper as an individual (including a student from Japan who didn’t speak a word of English).
The setting was very comfortable, and most of all, we had fun!
Mr. Reed’s passion for sharing this piece was inspiring. He ended the class with his usual universal clap and a wish that the Tap Gods be with us, and a reminder that we must always “respect the danceâ€.
0 Comments For This Post
1 Trackbacks For This Post
March 20th, 2008 at 1:06 am
[...] May 24-26, 2008 the ‘Tradition in Tap’ series of tap workshops will be dedicated to the work of the legendary Danny [...]
Leave a Reply